FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 8, 2018

Contact:
Janet Redman, janet [at] priceofoil.org
David Turnbull, david [at] priceofoil.org

House Poised to Vote for Big Oil Subsidy in Budget Deal

Today, members of the House of Representatives are considering a budget deal that includes a massive expansion of the IRS Section 45Q tax credit, used mainly by the chemical and fossil fuel industries to capture and sell carbon dioxide to oil companies to increase oil production. In response, Janet Redman, U.S. Policy Director for Oil Change International, provided the following comment:

“Congress handed Exxon a $6 billion windfall in the recent tax bill, and now they’re poised to sneak oil companies even more handouts in this spending bill. It’s cynical and reckless to provide relief for climate-related disasters with one hand, while essentially paying Big Oil to worsen the climate crisis with the other. Transferring billions of dollars from hard-working taxpayers to ultra-rich oil companies to extract more fossil fuels will not make our country safer or stronger.

“When so many regular Americans still struggle to pay for healthcare, put food on the table, and make ends meet, burying massive new handouts to the oil industry in an unrelated spending bill is obscene. Supporters on both side of the aisle of this massive giveaway to oil companies should be ashamed. The rest of us should be furious.

“The House of Representatives must vote against this damaging, wasteful bill and reject new handouts to the oil industry.”

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Note to Editors:

  • Earlier this week, dozens of organizations signed a letter opposing the inclusion of the 45Q extender in spending bills.

  • Oil Change International analysis found that the portion of an expanded 45Q tax credit designed to benefit the oil industry (the CO2-enhanced oil recovery credit) could cost taxpayers as much as $2.8 billion annually by 2035, while actually increasing CO2 emissions by as much as tens of millions of tons per year.

  • Last week, ExxonMobil reported a $5.9 billion windfall in Q4 2017 as a result of U.S. tax reform.